Puzzle No. 026
Picarats: 20


A glass jar holds a single germ. After one minute, the germ splits into two germs. One minute after that, the two germs each split again, forming a total pair of four germs. Continuing at this rate, a single germ can multiply to fill this whole jar in exactly one hour.

Knowing this, how long in minutes would it take to fill the jar if you had started with two germs?















Hint One: If one germ becomes two, and two become four, that means that the number of germs doubles each minute.

Hint Two: If you start with one germ, the germ will multiply and fill the jar in one hour.

Starting with one germ, then, how many will you have in one minute?

Read the problem carefully.

Hint Three: Let's take a step back and think.

Your answer is the amount of time is takes for two germs to fill the jar. If it takes one minute for one germ to turn into two, how much additional time is needed to fill the jar?

Solution:













The answer is 59 minutes.

It takes one minute for a single germ to split into two. Therefore, starting with two germs instead of one only saves you one minute.